An abrupt change in the weather, which had curtailed training during the week, unexpectedly allowed the archers to shoot on Sunday. Initial forecasts had predicted rain all day but by Friday the forecast had changed to sunny spells, turning cool in the afternoon. The handful of archers who turned up on Sunday were treated to perfect shooting conditions - warm, dry and still and this tempted Joy Gough and Barbara Harris to take on the boys over the Gents WA1440 distances of 90/70/50&30m for a bit of fun.

In the Compound division Joy Gough lined up against Dave Moore, Pete Mumford, Rhys Moore and, after a break from shooting, Colin Moore. Both Rhys and Colin could only stay for the morning session and so shot a Long Metric round which comprises of the first two distances of the Gents WA1440. Rhys took an early lead putting himself 17 points clear of his nearest rival at 90m and was 20 points clear by the time he finished the morning’s shoot. With Joy’s bow being much less powerful than the ones the men use she was forced to aim at the flag to make the 90m distance and was consequently at a disadvantage. In spite of this Joy managed to put in a distance total that equalled that of Colin Moore even though she had a miss in the first dozen arrows and then went on to outshoot Colin at 70m. It would have been interesting to see what the outcome would have been had Colin been able to stay for the whole day.

The fight for the honours in the Gents WA1440 was left to Pete, Dave and Joy. Pete Mumford, who was finding the attentions of the midges troublesome, was 7 points down on Dave Moore at the half way stage. Dave Moore then kindly reminded everyone to change their sight marks after the lunchtime break and promptly dialled in the wrong sight mark on his own bow. Hardly any of the other Club members remarked upon this lapse of concentration. The inaccurate sight mark resulted in a miss that allowed Pete Mumford to leap frog him and take the lead. Joy Gough also made an unfortunate error with her sight mark which cost her two misses at 50m. She went on to have one further miss at 30m but still added 8 points to her pb for the round. Pete Mumford, covered in insect repellent and once more in relaxed mode, put in an effortless 30m to clinch victory by 10 points. His overall score also provided him with a new pb for the round courtesy of an improvement in X’s and 10’s.

In the Recurve division Barbara Harris took to the field against Carl Moon and Danny Cowin. Carl could only stay for the morning session as he was remodelling his kitchen and the fight, if it could be called that, was between Harris and Cowin. Having never shot the round before whatever Barbara recorded would be a pb so she was in a good mood for once. This was just as well as she was in full on clumsy mode- tripping over her own bow twice to the amusement of the assembled company. With a woefully underpowered bow Harris was forced to aim at the flag with her long rod in order to make the distance at 90m and recorded 6 misses. Not wishing to lose to a woman focused Cowin’s ,for want of a better word, mind and he put in the best 90m total he had shot in months. Although Harris did out score Danny in the final end of 90m she was well off the pace. Barbara then went on to shoot a somewhat average score at 70m but Danny added 50 points to the sort of totals he had been putting in recently and was clearly enjoying himself.

The afternoon session saw a deterioration in the weather as it became cooler and breezier. Danny Cowin put in a reasonably good 50m score while Harris shot a season’s best at the distance which allowed her to deal with Cowin’s childish antics with a Zen like calm. Harris continued her struggle with the 30m but Danny shot well to record his second highest overall total of the season and take the win. Harris was happy to register a pb for the round that was a first class score and also to set a New Club record.

David Smith and junior archers Nathan Kinrade and Toby Young also turned up for the afternoon session. David, shooting a Short Metric, had a nightmare at 50m but recovered well at 30. Nathan Kinrade (Short Metric IV 20/10m) was nowhere near his best but seemed to be enjoying himself, while Toby Young (Short Metric II 40/30m) put in another solid round just 3 points off his pb.

Results: Gents WA1440 – Compound 1.P.Mumford 144/1289/54/19pb, 2.D.Moore 143/1272/43/13, 3.J.Gough 140/1208/31/11pb. Recurve – 1.D.Cowin 144/1074/12/4, 2.B.Harris 137/927/7/4pb,NCR. Long Metric – Compound – 1.R.Moore 72/646/24/8pb, 2.C.Moore 72/565/8/4. Recurve – C.Moon 72/413/2/2. Short Metric – D.Smith 47/237/0/0. Short Metric II – T.Young 72/602/9/2.